Abstract
The characteristics of flow and pollutant dispersion for fire scenarios in an urban area are numerically investigated. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model coupled to a mesoscale weather research and forecasting (WRF) model is used in this study. In order to more accurately represent the effect of topography and buildings, the geographic information system (GIS) data is used as an input data of the CFD model. Considering prevailing wind, firing time, and firing points, four fire scenarios are setup in April 2008 when fire events occurred most frequently in recent five years. It is shown that the building configuration mainly determines wind speed and direction in the urban area. The pollutant dispersion patterns are different for each fire scenario, because of the influence of the detailed flow. The pollutant concentration is high in the horse-shoe vortex and recirculation zones (caused by buildings) close to the fire point. It thus means that the potential damage areas are different for each fire scenario due to the different flow and dispersion patterns. These results suggest that the accurate understanding of the urban flow is important to assess the effect of the pollutant dispersion caused by fire in an urban area. The present study also demonstrates that CFD model can be useful for the assessment of urban environment.
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